Astrology in Medicine by THE FITZPATRICK LECTURES PDF

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ASTROLOGY IN MEDICINE
s-
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited

LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA
*
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO

DALLAS SAN FRANCISCO
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.

TORONTO
ASTROLOGY IN MEDICINE
THE FITZPATRICK LECTURES

DELIVERED BEFORE
THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS
ON
NOVEMBER 6 AND II, 1913
WITH ADDENDUM ON
SAINTS AND SIGNS
BY
CHARLES ARTHUR MERCIER, M.D.

FELLOW OF THE COLLEGE
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

ST. MARTINS STREET, LONDON
COPYRIGHT
ffiambriigc
PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.

AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
TO
SIR THOMAS BARLOW, Bart., K.C.V.O.

PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF LONDON
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2015 with funding from
disc and Wellcome Library
https://archive.org/detaiis/b21443300
CONTENTS
PAGE
Lecture I . . . . 1
Lecture II ... . 39
Saints and Signs . 80

LECTURE I
The position of Astrology among the Sciences
is quite unique. Its origin is so remote as to

antecede all wiitten records : it has formed an
important part of the life of every nation that has
advanced beyond barbarism : it has been studied

with enthusiasm not only by every European nation,
but also by the Egyptians, the natives of India, the
Chinese, the Arabs, the Jews, and by the Baby-
lonians and the Chaldeans. It was studied in one
long unbroken effort for thousands of years, and
engaged the most strenuous endeavours of some of
the greatest intellects in every age. Albertus
Magnus was a convinced astrologer, and even Roger
Bacon, that very great man, projected a universal
medicine founded upon Astrology. A knowledge
of Astrology was a necessary part of the equipment
of all educated men ;
and Astrological terms form
to this day an integral part of every European
language. We still consider', we still find persons
M. 1
2 Astrology in Medicine
and things in opposition ;

we still suffer disaster ;
we still find some things exorbitant ;

and others
in the ascendent ;
some persons are still fortunate
enough to be born under a luchy star ;
we still
deal in merchandise ;
with merchants ;
we are all
familiar with the martial cloak of Sir J. Moore

we still describe dispositions and persons as
Saturnine, Jovial, Martial or Mercurial-, we still
retain the names of Saturday, Sunday and Mon-

day ;
in Medicine we retain the terms Lunatic
and Venereal disease, and in the latter we still
prescribe Mercury-, and we still begin our pre-

scriptions with the sign of Jupiter.
Yet these are the only remaining remnants of

a science and an art that were once of paramount
importance ;
and even medical men are ignorant
of the very terminology of a science and an art
that have been declared, by authority after au-
thority, to be so necessary to the proper practice

of medicine, that without them medicine could not
be efficiently practised, and no medical practitioner
was fully equipped for his task. Astrology is now
utterly extinct. It began to decay at the renais-
sance; it languished in the seventeenth century;
the last man of high distinction who practised it in

Death of Astrology 3
this country was John Dryden^; but though Peter

Woulfe, a F.R.S., maintained the truth of Astrology
at the beginning of the nineteenth century, it had
really expired when it received its deathblow from
the biting humour of Jonathan Swift. Yet when
Walter Scott, less than a century afterwards, in-
troduced into one of his novels the terms of the
art, there was no one then living, nor has there
been since any commentator of sufficient knowledge,

to expose the blunders that he made.
To such a record there is no parallel in the
history of human endeavour. There are indeed

two subjects of study that afibrd an approximation,
but an approximation only, to the history of
Astrology. The first of these is Alchemy, which

really included what we now call Chemistry, and
1 In a letter to his sons John and Charles, dated Sept. 3,

1697, Dryden says Towards the latter end of this month,
September, Charles begin to recover his perfect health
will
according to his nativity, which, casting it myself, I am sure
is true, and things hitherto have happened according to
all
the very time that I predicted them. See also the Preface to
his Fables, and the lines
The utmost malice of the stars is past

Now frequent trines the happier lights among.
And high raised Jove, from his dark prison freed.
Those weights took off that on his planet hung.
Will gloriously the new-laid works succeed.
12
is therefore very far from extinct. Alchemy is
usually, however, understood to mean solely, what

it did in fact include as its principal objects, the
search for the philosophers stone, and the search

for the elixir of life. The philosophers stone was
desired, not as an end in itself, but as a means to
the transmutation of metals, which were not then
known to be elements. I need not remind this
audience that this endeavour, which has been the

object for the finger of scorn for so many years, is
now almost within sight of success. Certain ele-
ments are now transmuted, or transmute them-

selves ;
and one at least of the metals known to
the ancient Alchemists is now made in the labora-
tory. Nor need I remind you that one eminent

physician discovered, a few years ago, the elixir of
life in orchidian extract ;

while another has still
more recently made the surprising discovery that
the elixir of life is neither more nor less than sour
milk. He was more fortunate than a predecessor,
who first isolated alcohol, and having drunk freely
of the newly discovered elixir of life, died, by the
irony of fate, of acute alcoholic poisoning.

A nearer parallel to the fate of Astrology is to
be found in that of Aristotelian Logic; but the

Astrology and Logic 5
parallel is still not quite complete. It is true that
Logic 'Was once cultivated with the same uni-
versality and the same fervour as Astrology ;

that
it was aforetime, like Astrology, a necessary part
of the equipment of every man who pretended to

be educated ;
and that it is now fallen into neglect
and contempt that are well-nigh as universal as its
former cultivation ;
but, unlike Astrology, Logic is
not yet quite extinct. It is dying, indeed : it is in
the very agony of death; but it still breathes.
The lamp of Astrology is utterly gone out, but the

expiring flame of Logic still flickers precariously
in some of the dark places of the earth. We might

still And, by diligent search, professors who know
the meaning of Barbara and Celarent, of Bocardo
and Baralipton, and can even subject them to the
orthodox manipulations of logical art; but who
now knows the meaning of a triplicity or a horo-
scope? or could cast a geniture, or rectify a na-
tivity? Logic is moribund, it is true, but Astrology
is already dead. It has been dead so long that it
no longer stinks ;
perhaps because it is embalmed
in the writings of so many men that were eminent
in their day. We have even forgotten how con-
spicuous and important a position it occupied
among the sciences, the arts, and the crafts of our

forefathers; and it is because the long sleep of
medicine, its stagnation and want of progress
through so many centuries, was due in no small
degree to the shackles of Astrology, and of the
humoral pathology, which Astrology countenanced
and corroborated, that I think it seemly and
proper to bring before this College the elementary
principles of Astrology, and the ways in which they
were applied to medicine.
Astrology had a known history of nearly six
thousand years. Its beginning seems to have
been in Chaldea about 4000 B.c. : it was diflFiised
throughout all nations and peoples that had any

pretence to civilisation ;
and it engaged, throughout
that immense time and that enormous area, the
attention of innumerable votaries, among whom

were some of the greatest intellects that have
adorned the human race. It had consequently

attained to a degree of elaboration and complexity
which renders it difficult to give, within any
reasonable compass, a clear account of its volu-
minous details, expressed as they are in highly

technical terminology, and conveyed in Latin so
canine and so extraordinarily abbreviated as to be

Factors of Astrology 7
obscure, often to the point of unintelligibility. In
preparing the account that I shall give, I have had

the advantage of appealing on different points, to
a Latin scholar of rare attainments, to a Professor
of Astronomy, and to a Professor of Ancient
History, and I rejoice to say that one and all have
been unable to solve some of the problems that
had puzzled myself. Where such solar luminaries
have failed to illuminate, it is no disgrace to my

farthing candle if it gives no light.
The main factors in Astrology are three ;

the
Signs of the Zodiac, the Seven Planets, and the
Houses of Heaven \
In Medical Astrology there is yet another
factor, which is equally important, and without
which Medical Astrology cannot be understood.
This factor consists of the four Elementary Qualities,
Heat, Cold, Dryness and Moisture; which cor-
respond with the four elements. Fire, Earth, Air
and Water; with the four humours. Yellow Bile,
Black Bile, Blood and Phlegm; and with many

other things.
^ A House has two meanings in Astrology. It may mean
a twelfth part of the heavens, as will be shown presently,
or it may mean a Sign of the Zodiac specifically appropriated
to a particular Planet, which is its Lord.
Since there are twelve Signs of the Zodiac,

Seven Planets, and twelve Houses of Heaven, it
will be easily seen that the merely numerical

combinations of any one of these with the others
are indefinitely multitudinous ;
and when it is
known that each may be combined with the others

in many different ways, the complications become
too great for the human intellect to follow ;
and
since many of the combinations depend on con-
siderations that are both vague and arbitrary, it is
not surprising that scarcely any two Astrologers

should combine them in the same w'ay, or draw
the same conclusions from the same disposition of
the heavens.
Every Sign of the Zodiac, every Planet, and
every House has certain special powers and influ-
ence, not only over mankind generally, but specially
over individual men and women, according to the

moment of their birth, according to their com-
plexion, disposition and temperament, according

to the place in which they live, and so forth ;
and
in addition, every Sign, Planet, and House has
special powers at certain times of life, and every
Sign and Planet has its own elementary qualities,
as hot and dry, cold and moist, and so forth, and

Signs of the Zodiac 9
has special power over some part of the body and

some faculty of mind. Moreover, these powers,
both general and special, are reinforced or di-
minished in so many ways that the memory can

scarcely retain them ;
and since neither the re-
inforcement nor the diminution is susceptible of
any exact computation, the result, even if all were

to be allowed their proper weight, must always be
dubious.
The Signs of the Zodiac.
These, of course, are twelve in number. In

Astronomy they are disposed in the order in which
the sun successively occupies them, Aries, Taurus
and Gemini being the Signs of Spring; Cancer,
Leo and Virgo those of Summer ;
Libra, Scorpio
and Sagittarius those of Autumn ;

and Capricornus,
Aquarius and Pisces the Signs of Winter. In
Astrology, however, they are differently arranged,
according to their several qualities or properties.

They are still in groups of three, but each group
forms, not a season of the year, but a Triplicity,
thus:
Aries, the first month of Spring, Leo, the second

month of Summer, and Sagittarius, the third month
of Autumn, form the first Triplicity every sign in

;
which is hot and dry, regulates the Bilis fiava, is
masculine, diurnal, and is infiuential in youth. Its
Lord is Sol by day and Jupiter by night.
The second Triplicity consists of Taurus, the
second Sign of Spring, Virgo, the third Sign of

Summer, and Capricornus, the first of Winter.
These Signs are cold and dry ;

their corresponding
humour is Bilis atra ;

they are feminine, nocturnal.
The Triplicities H
and preside over decrepitude. Their Lords are
Venus by day and Luna by night.
The third Triplicity is composed of Gemini,

Libra and Aquarius ;
the third of Spring, the first
of Autumn, and the second of Winter. These are

hot and moist in complexion, their humour is
Sanguis, they are masculine and diurnal ;

they
preside over our childhood, and their Lords are
Saturn by day and Mercury by night.

The Signs of the fourth Triplicity are Cancer,
the first of Summer, Scorpio, the second of Autumn,
and Pisces, the third of Winter. They are cold

and moist ;
their humour is Pituita ;
they are
feminine and nocturnal ;
they regulate the middle
period of life ;
and their Lords are Venus by day
and Mars by night.
It is also important to know that some signs

are mobile, such are Cancer, Libra, Capricornus
and Pisces ;
others are stable, and such are Taurus,
Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius ;

while a third group
is mediocre with respect to mobility, as Aries,
Gemini, Virgo and Sagittarius.
A masculine Sign is so called because a child
conceived under the influence of that Sign will be

a male ;
and children conceived under feminine
Signs are female. (Yet it is a fixed rule that all
children are born under Aries, just as by the
common law, all children born at sea are parish-
ioners in Stepney.)
A Sign is diurnal or nocturnal according as its
power is greater by day or by night.

In addition, every Sign has an aspect towards
some particular part of the human body.
Aries is the principal and most important sign
of all. In whatever scheme the Signs are reckoned,
Aries comes first : consequently its aspect is to the
head. Taurus relates to the neck and shoulders,

because a bull is in these parts very robust.
Gemini relates to the arms and hands, because the

twins are represented as embracing, and the
quality of embracing is in the arms and hands.
Cancer pertains to the chest and the adjacent
parts, because a crab is very robust in the chest
and thereabouts. Leo pertains to the heart and
the mouth of the stomach, because the whole
virtue 6f a lion is in his courage. Virgo relates
to the intestines, the base of the stomach and
umbilicus, because the virtue of a virgin resides
therein. Libra relates to the kidneys, because

they lie equally balanced, one on each side of the
The Planets 13
spine. Scorpio refers to the genitals, because the
whole virtue of the scorpion is in his tail, and
these are the caudalia of man. The aspect of

Sagittarius is to the hips, of Capricornus to the
knees, of Aquarius to the legs, and of Pisces to the

feet, these being the parts of the body, as those
are the Signs, that come next in order.
The Planets.
It is scarcely necessary to remind this audience

that in the time when Astrology came into being,
the earth was the centre of the universe, and the

Planets were seven in number, Uranus and Neptune
being then as unknown as Pallas and Ceres, while

the sun and moon differed from the other wandering
stars only in their greater size and lustre, and in
the greater regularity of their movements.

There was a certain conventional order, the
origin of which cannot now be traced, in which
the Planets were always enumerated; an order
that does not correspond with their relative size
and importance, for then the Sun would come first.
It is Saturn, however, that takes precedence, and

is followed by Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury
and Luna, in the order in which I have named

them.
The range of influence of the Planets over
matters terrestrial was plenary. On the whole, the

term influence best conveys the meaning of the
Astrological term aspect, which is more than
corresponds with, a term that is sometimes
substituted for aspect. Though as to some things
which they aspected, or .with which they cone-
sponded, such as the Zodiacal signs and the four
elements, the Planets were neither productive nor
regulative, yet with respect to most things, they
were at least regulative, and as to many were

actually originating. For instance, Guy de Chauliac,
called by Fallopius the father of Surgery, as
Hippocrates is the father of Medicine, attributed
the great plague of 1345 to the conjunction of the

three planets, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars, in Aquarius
on March 24th of that year.
Torella, physician to Caesar Borgia and Pope
Alexander VI, attributed syphilis to a peculiar
conjunction of the Planets. So does Basil Valen-
tinus, and so does Petrus Maynardus, who was able,
moreover, to predict that it would come to an end

in 1584. The College of Physicians of Paris
Jurisdiction oj the Planets 15
attributed the Black Death of 1349 to a vapour or
fog generated by the struggle between the con-

stellations, which combated the rays of the sun
and the warmth of the heavenly fire, struggling
violently with the waters of the great sea.

This
vapour, they said,

will continue to spread as long
as the sun is in Leo.... We are of opinion that the
constellations with the aid of nature strive by

virtue of their divine might to protect and heal
the human race.
Taken together, the Planets had jurisdiction

over everything, but not indiscriminately. Each
Planet had its own peculiar jurisdiction over some
things, while other Planets divided between them
the jurisdiction over other things of that kind. Like
the Signs of the Zodiac, each of the Planets had
a jurisdiction over some part of the human body,
but this was only a small region of its sway. Every
Planet aspected its own element, and its own
complexion, or pair of elementary qualities, so
that Saturn, for instance, was cold and dry, Jupiter
hot and moist, and so forth. Each Planet had its
own colour, odour and taste ;

each its own groups
of animals and plants ;
each its own metal, and we
still speak of Saturnine poisoning, of crocus Martis,
and of the metal Mercury ;

each has its own plants,
its own day of the week and hour of the day ;
and
what is more germane to the present purpose,
every Planet had its corresponding humour, part
of the body, sense, faculty, part of the mind, bodily
configuration and mental temperament, its time of

life, and its peculiar diseases and mode of death.
One or two instances will be enough to
exemplify the way in which sublunary afiairs are
apportioned among the Planets. Take for instance

animals: of these, Saturn has jurisdiction over the
camel, the bear, the ass, the cat, the owl, the bat,
the tortoise, the mouse, the beetle ;
and generally,
over beasts of evil omen or of slow movement.
The aspect of Jupiter is to the wise, the swift, and

the strong : to the elephant, the stag and the bull.
Mars aspects the horse, the wolf, the bee, the
dog, the ostrich, venomous snakes, scorpions and

spiders; all either fighters or noxious to human
beings. Sol presides over regal and dominant
animals, the lion, the eagle and the cock. Venus

has jurisdiction over the goat, the sheep, the
pheasant, the partridge, the pigeon, the dove and
the sparrow ;
all amatory, and either polygamous or
otherwise prolific. The aspect of Mercury is to
Jurisdiction of the Planets 17
the fox, the ape, the serpent, the parrot, the spider,
the bee. and the ant, and generally, to animals that
are reputed wise or cunning. Luna influences the
hare, the swan, the nightingale, the frog, flsh,
landsnails, crabs and shellflsh, and generally,

animals that are nocturnal or aquatic.
Of plants, Saturn has jurisdiction over the oak,
the mespilus, the rue, the hellebore, and generally
over those of slow growth, of narcotic virtue, and

of crass substance. Jupiter over the laurel, the
sandal-wood, the cinnamon, the balsam and the
incense tree. Mars over pepper, ginger, mustard,
jalap, scammony, colocynth, euphorbium, and

generally over all bitter plants and hot poisons.
Sol aspects the palm, rosemary, heliotrope, crocus,

and all aromatics. Venus the olive, the pine, the
lily, the rose and the pea; Mercury the corylus
and the millefoil; and Luna the cucumber, the
gourd, pepin fruits, i.e. apples and pears, and
lettuce.
The minerals of Saturn are lead and all black

stones; of Jupiter, tin, the sapphire, and the
amethyst ;
of Mars, iron, jasper, and magnesia ;
of
Sol, gold, carbuncles, and crysolite; of Venus, cop-
per, smaragdus, turquoise, and coral ;
of Mercury,
M. 2
quicksilver, chalcedony, and cornelian; and of

Luna, silver, crystals, beryl, and the diamond.
I defer to the next lecture the consideration of
those planetary aspects that have a special bearing

upon medicine, but this is perhaps the proper
place to make the very important distinction
between the benevolent, propitious, or fortunate

Planets and those that are malevolent, unpropitious,
or unlucky. The fortunate, or benevolent, or
propitious Planets are Jupiter, Sol, and Venus, of
which the first and last are lucky in the highest

degree. Saturn, Mars, and Luna are malevolent,
unpropitious, and unlucky. Mercury is variable in
this respect. He has scarcely any character of his

own, but he reinforces the benevolence or the
malevolence, as the case may be, of whatever
Planet may be in conjunction with him, or may be

favourably aspected by him.
It is evident, if these premises are granted, that
the course and termination of every malady in
every sick person depend on the relative power,

with respect to other Planets, of the particular
Planet or Planets that have jurisdiction in the
matter. They will depend, in the first place, on the
Planet that has jurisdiction over the temperament.
Planets and Disease 19
as Saturn if he is saturnine, Jupiter if he is
jovial, Mars if he is martial, and so forth. They

will depend also on the Planet that presides over
the humour that is peccant, as yellow bile, black
bile, blood or phlegm. They will depend on the

Planet that governs the part of the body that is
diseased; on that which governs the disease; on
that which has jurisdiction at the time of life at
which the sick person is arrived; on that which
presided over his nativity, and so forth. Here are

at least six circumstances to be taken into account,
and of couise, the Planet that governs one of these

circumstances may not be the same, and in fact
must be different from those which govern others.
So that seven Planets may all be influencing the
disease and the sick person at once, and may all
be pulling in different directions, some towards

health and some towards death, some towards
acuteness and some towards chronicity of the
disease. It is evident, therefore, that his fate must
depend on the relative powers of the propitious
and unpropitious Planets, and that it is of the
utmost importance to determine the factors on
which the powers of the Planets depend, and to
estimate their strength in any particular case.
22
This is by no means easy, for the factors are
very numerous. It will be enough to obtain an

approximate estimate, however, if we confine our
consideration to the ten in the following enumera-
tion.
The power of a Planet at any given moment

depends on:
1. The Sign of the Zodiac in which it is
6.
situated at that moment.
2. The Sign of which the Planet is Lord.

3. The Sign in which the Planet rejoices.
4. The Signs in which the Planet ascends

or descends.
The House in which the Planet is situated.

6. The House in which the Planet rejoices.
10.
7. The position or aspect of the Planet
towards other Planets.
8. The aspect of the Planet to the As-
cendent.
9. The motion of the Planet, as fast or slow,
direct or retrograde.
The day and hour.

In this estimation of the powers of the Planets,
much depends on the Houses of Heaven, and these
must be described before we can proceed.

The Houses of Heaven 21
The Houses of Heaven.
We all recognise that, while the stars have an
apparent motion from the eastern horizon up to

the vertical meridian, and down again to the
western horizon, yet the horizons and the vertical

meridian keep their places with respect to us, and
do not move. The eastern horizon and the vertical
meridian enclose between them a fourth part of

the heavens, whose content is continually changing,
as the stars rise above the eastern horizon and

reach and pass the meridian. Similarly, from the
meridian to the western horizon is another fourth
part ;
and the two remaining fourths are beneath
the horizon, and are divided from one another by
the inferior vertical meridian, all these fourth
parts remaining stationary, while the stars occupy
them each in turn in the daily revolution of the
heavens. Now imagine each of these fixed quarters

of heaven to be divided by three equidistant
meridians: the heavens will then be divided into
twelve parts, six above the horizon and six below,
whose starry contents are continually changing.
These twelve divisions are the twelve Houses of
Heaven.
That is to say, they are so if the meridians
which divide them meet at the north and south

poles of the horizon of the place ;
and it was the
usual rule in Astrology so to consider them but
;
it was not the invariable rule. Some astrologers

put the meeting places at the celestial poles, and
then the Houses were divided by the ordinary
meridians. Others put the meeting places at the
Zenith and the Nadir of the place. It is manifest
that those astrologers who computed the positions
of the Planets in one set of Houses, must arrive at
very different results from those who computed

the positions in another set ;
for a Planet might be
in one House according to one computation, and in
a different House according to another.

That House which is immediately below the
eastern horizon, so that the stars therein are the
next to rise above the horizon, is the first House,

which is also called the Ascendent House, or shortly,
the Ascendent. It is the principal House, the most

powerful House, and takes rank over all the others.
The Planet or Planets that occupy the Ascendent

chiefly determine the fate of the native. The rest
of the Houses are known by numbers, and follow
one another widdershins, that is, in the order

Cusps of the Houses 23
reverse to the movement of the hands of a clock.
The second and third are between the Ascendent

and the lower vertical meridian ;
the fourth, fifth
and sixth between the lower vertical meridian and

the western horizon ;
and so on until the twelfth
house meets the first at the eastern horizon.
The anterior boundary of each House, the

meridian which the stars in that House will cross
next, is called the cusp of that House ;
and from
the cusp the position of the Planets in the House
is measured in degrees and minutes. The cusp of
the Ascendent House is called the horoscope ;

and
I may here correct a prevalent error with respect
to this term. It is customary to speak of casting
a horoscope, as if that were a possible and usual
operation in Astrology. What is meant by the

expression is casting a nativity or geniture ;
that
is to say, setting out, on a plan of the Houses of

Heaven, the position of the Signs of the Zodiac
and of the Planets in the respective Houses that
they occupied at the moment of birth. Similarly,
we may cast a decumbiture, that is, we may set out

a similar plan for the moment a disease begins ;
and such an operation was as necessary in the daily
routine of a physician as is now the taking the

temperature of the patient : but it is manifest

that we cannot in this sense cast a horoscope,
for the horoscope is but the cusp of the Ascen-
dent.
Fig. 2,
This is the most obvious method of setting out

the Houses, but it was not usually adopted, perhaps
because compasses were not common, and circles
not so easy to draw as straight lines. The

Aspects of the Homes 25
conventional figure, on which the positions of the

heavenly bodies were always set out, was thus
Fig. 3.
Each House of Heaven, like each Sign of the

Zodiac and each Planet, has its special aspect,
jurisdiction, or influence over human affairs ;

but
unlike the Signs and the Planets, the Houses are
not complexionate : they are neither hot nor cold,
neither moist nor dry.
Just as Aries is the first, the most powerful and

important of the Signs, and Luna the most power-
ful and important of the Planets, so the Ascendent
is the most powerful and important of the Houses.

When a Planet is in the Ascendent, its power is
paramount over all the other Planets, wherever

they may be ;
still, it may be strongly infiuenced
by them. The Ascendent is the House of projects,

of the beginnings of things, especially of journeys ;
it is the House of life, of movement, and of ques-
tions and answers.

The second House is the House of riches, and
of servants ;
and signifies the end of youth, and
the lessening of the years of life.
The third House is the House of brothers and
sisters ;
of acquaintances and friend^ ;
of heirs ;
of changes ;
of continuance of journeys ;
of quiet
of kingdoms ;
of religion, and ministers of religion.
The fourth House is the House of parents ;

of
heredity ;
of towns in which the native lives, and
in which he is born, and of his fate after death.
The fifth House is the House of children ;

of
eating and drinking of games ;

of fighting ;
of
;
pictures, vessels and money.

The sixth House is the House of sickness and
Powers of the Houses 27
health ;
of servants ;
of domestic animals ;
and of
receiving.
The seventh House is the House of women ;

of
marriage ;
of contentions and strife ;
of saints ;
and
of thieves ;
and signifies the middle of life.
The eighth House is the House of Death ;

of
fear ;
of riches ;
and of the last years of life.
The ninth House is of pilgrimages and journeys
of faith ;
of wisdom and philosophy ;
of books ;
of
rumours ;
and of sleep.
The tenth House is the Royal House. It is the

House of dignities ;
of laws ;
of princes and magis-
trates ;
of memories ;
of mothers ;
and of half of
the years of life.
The eleventh House is the House of fortune

of good faith ;
of friends and allies.
The twelfth House is the House of unfriends,

and of bad faith ;
of labour ;
of battles ;
of sad-
ness ;
and of beasts and birds.
The strongest House of all is the Ascendent.

Next to this are the other angulares, which im-
mediately precede the other cardinal points, viz.
the fourth, seventh and tenth, all powerful and pro-

pitious Houses. The next in succession are called
the successors of the angulares, and are less

powerful than the angulares, but still disposed to

be good, or propitious. The remaining Houses,
the third, sixth, ninth and twelfth, are called ab
angulis cadenteSy and are unpropitious, and dis-
posed to evil.
We are now in a position to discover the ways

in which the power of a Planet is increased or
diminished.
In the first place, every Planet is related to
certain Signs of the Zodiac in three different

ways. First, it has a Sign or Signs peculiar to
itself, which are called the houses of the Planet,
and of this house, or of these houses, the planet is
Lord. Second, every Planet has a Sign in which it
rejoices. When situated in any of these Signs, and
especially when in its house, the power of the
Planet is augmented. Third, every Planet is ex-
alted in a certain Sign, and depressed in that which

is diametrically opposite, and the power of the
Planet is increased or diminished according as the
one or the other of these Signs is in the Ascendent.
For instance, Saturn is Lord of Capricorn essen-

tially, and of Aquarius accidentally ;
he rejoices
in Aquarius, is exalted in Libra, and depressed in
Aries. Consequently, his power is at its maximum

The Houses and the Planets 29
when he is in Capricorn, and is augmented when

he is in Aquarius. It is increased when Libra is in
the Ascendent, and subdued when Aries is in that
House. Saturn (chronos) regulates the beginnings

of things, especially of things relating to the earth,
such as planting, sowing, ploughing, and other

operations of agriculture. Such operations ought
therefore to be begun when Saturn has power, as
when he is in the Ascendent, or in Capricorn or
Aquarius, provided that Aries is not in the Ascen-

dent. If Libra should be in the Ascendent, however,
such operations can scarcely fail to be successful.
A hot Planet in a hot Sign will have its heat

augmented ;
but in a cold Sign its heat will be
reduced ;
and so of the other elementary qualities.
A moist Planet in a humid Sign will be dripping

wet, and will aggravate diseases due to moisture.
We have seen that certain Houses are more
propitious than others, those, namely, whose cusp is
on the horizon or on one of the vertical meridians.

A benevolent Planet will be doubly so when in a
propitious House, but will have little power to
benefit when it is in an unpropitious House.
The House in which it is situated influences a
Planet in more ways than this. Every Planet has
not only a Sign, but a House also in which it re-
9 joices ;
and when it is in this House its power is
augmented. Mercury rejoices in the Ascendent,

Luna in the third House, Mars in the sixth, Sol in
the ninth, Jupiter in the eleventh, and Saturn in
the twelfth.
Perhaps the most important factor in modifying

the power of the Planets, and certainly the factor
to which the most importance is attached, is their
relative position or aspect with respect to one
^ another, and to the Ascendent.
The first aspect of Planets to one another is
Conjunction, which, like other terms in Astrology,

and in its congener. Logic, is not always used in
the same sense. Planets are said by some au-
thorities to be in conjunction when they are within

2 of one another by others, when they are within
;
15 of each other ;
by others, when they are in the
same Sign, and by others when they are in the
same House. All are agreed, however, that when-
ever a Planet is within 15 of Sol, it is combust,

and its powers are for the time abolished. Other-
wise, when Planets of the same qualities are in
conjunction, they corroborate and reinforce one
another ;
but when Planets of opposing qualities
Aspects of the Planets 31
are in conjunction, each cancels a part of the power

of the other ;
so that when a good Planet is con-
joined with an evil one, the malice of this is
tempered, and the benevolence of that is debili-
tated. One of my authorities, Arnaldus de Villa-

nova, gives the following instance.
When you are
anxious to begin some good work, you should see

that Luna makes junction with benevolent Planets,
or at any rate, is well separated from bad ones

but he who wants to do evil, as for example, to
poison a little girl, or anything of that kind, ought
to choose a time when Luna is conjoined with bad,

or is separated from good Planets.
The second aspect is Sextile. This is when two
Planets are separated by a sixth part of the Zodiac,
or by two Signs. Such an aspect is moderately
friendly not manifestly, but occultly, or of hidden
benevolence.
The third aspect is Quartile, and is when a
Planet aspects another through three Signs, which
is a fourth part of the Zodiac. Such an aspect
is of moderate or occult unfriendliness or con-
flict.
The fourth aspect is Trine, when a Planet

aspects another from a distance of four Signs, or a
third part of the Zodiac. This is the aspect of

warm friendship, and perfect benevolence.
The last aspect is Opposition, when one Planet is
distant from another by half the Signs of the Zodiac.
This is the most hostile aspect of all ;
it is the
aspect of open unfriendliness, hatred, and perdition.
Every Planet has two movements. First, it
partakes of the general movement of the heavenly

bodies, rising in the East and setting in the West,
a movement due to the primum mobile ;

and
second, it has its own proper motion among the
stars, which varies in rapidity, and is sometimes
direct, sometimes retrograde, and sometimes a-
bolished, so that the Planet is stationary among

the stars. The speed of this proper motion varies
greatly, Luna completing her course in 28 days, or
thereabouts, and Saturn requiring 29 years. The

motion of the Planets is of much importance in
medicine, for acute diseases, whose course is rapid,
are governed by the moon, whose motion is rapid,
while chronic diseases, whose course is slow, are
governed by the sun, whose course is likewise slow.
If any Planet that is regulating the course of a
disease should become retrograde in its motion, the
patient will of course get worse.

Hours of the Planets 33
Lastly, every Planet has its hour, in which it is
dominant ;
and, subject to the dominance of the
Planet that rules the hour, every Planet dominates

that day of the week of which its hour is the first.
Thus, Saturn dominates completely the first hour

of Saturday, and in a less degree, and subject to
the influence of the other Planets, the whole of the

dies Sabhathum. Jupiter rules the second hour of
Saturday, Mars the third, and so on until Luna
dominates the seventh hour, and then Saturn again
takes up the tale, and rules the eighth. The
rotation is then continued, so that Saturn comes
in again at the fifteenth and twenty-second hours ;
Jupiter follows at the twenty-third ;

Mars at the
twenty-fourth, which completes the day. The next

Planet on the rota is Sol, which therefore takes
the first hour, and in less degree the whole, of the
following day, which is accordingly Dies Solis, or

Sunday.
It is scarcely necessary to point out that every
undertaking to which any given Planet is propitious
ought to be begun in the hour in which that Planet
is dominant, and if possible on his day. So all
operations of husbandry should be begun on

Saturday, or if on any other day, then in the hour
M. 3
of Saturn. When written directions are given as

to any undertaking, the Planet that is propitious
to that undertaking should be signified, so that
the undertaking, whatever it may be, may be

begun in the hour of that Planet. If we give
written directions for sowing seed, or planting, or
any of the operations of husbandry, we should
preface our directions with the sign of Saturn.
If we write to a commercial correspondent instruc-
tions to buy or sell, we should remind him of the
hour and day propitious to the transaction by

placing at the head of our instructions the sign of
the Planet Mercury. Now, the Planet that is most

propitious to the operation of letting blood, and
to taking medicine, is Jupiter, and therefore all
written directions for letting blood or administering

medicine should bear the sign of Jupiter ;
and the
sign of Jupiter is V =1^, which still heads all our
prescriptions, and testifies to the intimate con-
nexion that existed aforetime between Astrology

and Medicine.
If we keep at our fingers ends the knowledge
we have now gained of the rudiments of Astro-
logical lore, we shall be in a position to turn that

knowledge to practical use, to erect a scheme of
A Specimen Nativity 35
the heavens at the nativity of any given person,

and to- interpret that scheme so as to predict at
least the general course of his life, and, if we have
sufficient skill, the individual incidents therein.
For this purpose it is convenient to select a person
whose career is closed, because this gives us the
double advantage of ascertaining whether our pre-

dictions are correct, and of keeping an eye on his
career during the course of our interpretations,

so that they may not go too wide of the mark.
I select therefore a distinguished man, Charles
XII of Sweden, whose career is familiar to you

all.
As is usual, the pole of the Houses is at the

horizontal north of the place, Stockholm, and not
at the celestial pole, and therefore the latitude is
given, and the Houses do not correspond with the

Signs of the Zodiac. Taurus, for instance, occupies
the whole of the fifth House, with six degrees
of the fourth, and twenty of the sixth ;
while
Aquarius lies wholly within the second, which
includes also seven degrees of Capricorn and five
of Pisces.
The first omen that attracts our attention is
that Mars, the military planet, occupies the twelfth

32
House, the House of battles and of enemies. We

predict, therefore, that
No joys to him pacific scepters yield,
War sounds the trump, he rushes to the field
Peace courts his hand, but spreads her charms in vain

Think nothing gaind, he cries, till nought remain

!
Fig. 4. Nativitas Caroli Duodecimi, Eegis Suecise.
Venus, in the second House, does not aspect

the native, and exerts no influence over him and ;
Charles XH was notoriously insusceptible to the

Nativity of Charles XII 37
charms of love. He was a neglecter and despiser

of women
Oer love, oer fear extends his wide domain,
Unconquerd lord of pleasure and of pain.
Sol, in the Ascendent, predicts for the native

an illustrious and glorious career, and equips him
with the necessary qualities
A frame of adamant, a soul of fire,
No dangers Mght him, and no labours tire;
Behold surrounding kings their powr combine.

And one capitulate, and one resign.
But Mars is an unpropitious Planet, a Planet of
ill omen, and his presence in the House of battles
cannot but signify military disaster ; Luna, in
sextile to the Ascendent, exerts an evil influence,
which Jupiter, sequestered in the second House

from exerting any comiteracting sway, is powerless
to restrain. What is the inevitable consequence?
He comes, not want nor cold his course delay ;
Hide, blushing Glory, hide Pultowas day

The vanquishd hero leaves his brokn bands.
And shews his miseries in distant lands
Condemnd a needy supplicant to wait,
While ladies interpose, and slaves debate.
Finally, Saturn, a very malevolent Planet, is
most ominously situated in the eighth House, the

House of Death, a certain indication that death
will come early and in disastrous circumstances.
How true the indication let the poet testify :
But did not Chance at length her eiTor mend?

Did no subverted empire mark his end ?
Did rival monarchs give the fatal wound?
Or hostile millions press him to the ground ?
His was destind to a barren strand,
fall
A petty fortress, and a dubious hand

He left a name, at which the world grew pale.
To point a moral, or adorn a tale.
LECTURE II
Having discovered in the last Lecture the

general principles of Astrology, we are now in a
position to discuss their application to medicine.
We have already found that every Zodiacal Sign

and every Planet has its own complexion, or pair
of elementary qualities, as hot and dry, hot and

moist, cold and dry, or cold and moist, and that
each has, accordingly, power over the correspond-
ing humour yellow bile, blood, black bile or
phlegm. We must now remark that among the

powers of the Signs and the Planets are some,
specially appertaining to medicine, that were
omitted in the previous review.
Each Planet has its own peculiar power over
the developing foetus, and exercises this power at
a certain period of pregnancy. Saturn has power
in the first month after conception, and by its own
frigidity (Saturn being cold and dry) infrigidates
the foetus, coagulates it, and drys it up, so causing
early abortions. Jupiter is potent in the second
month, and bestows on the embryo the spiritus

naturalis. Mars, in the third month, supplies the
concept with bones, and generally composes, or, as
we should say, dilferentiates, the various internal
organs. Sol, in the fourth month, supplies the

concept with blood, and perfects the heart and
liver. Venus, in the fifth month, gives to the con-
cept ears, eyebrows and pudenda. Mercury, in the
sixth month, opens the nose and mouth ;
and
Luna, in the seventh month, causes the develop-
ment of the lungs, and divides the fingers and toes
according to their places.
After birth, each Planet takes under its juris-
diction certain organs and tissues of the body, and

certain faculties of the mind ;
and has, moreover,
jurisdiction over certain diseases and certain modes

of death.
Saturn, which is cold and dry, and therefore
regulates the black bile, presides also over the
bones, teeth, cartilages, the right ear, the spleen
and the bladder ;

and over the memory. It has
power, of course, over the diseases of these parts,

and in addition, over quartan fever, scabies, lepra,
tabes, melancholia, paralysis, icterus niger, dropsy,
cancer, cough, asthma, phthisis, deafiiess of the

Jurisdictions of the Planets 41
right ear, and hernia. Under Saturn occur sudden

and violent deaths by falls, precipitation, ship-
wreck, suffocation, hanging, lead-poisoning, and

death at the hands of the public executioner.
Jupiter has jurisdiction over the radical mois-
ture, over the blood, the liver, the pulmonary
veins, the diaphragm, and the muscles of the
trunk ;
over the senses of touch and smell ;
over
the judgment, and the appetitus concupiscihilis ;
over the diseases of these parts and faculties, and

in addition over small-pox, angina, inflammation,
pleurisies and peripneumonias. Deaths due to the

influence of Jupiter occur in war, in duels, and by
the command of Princes.
Mars has power over the yellow bile, the gall-

bladder, the left ear, the pudenda and the kidneys.
He prompts the appetitus irascihilis. The diseases
due to his influence are acute fevers, plague,

yellow jaundice, convulsions, haemorrhages, car-
buncles, erysipelas, ulcers, and phagedaena. He
causes death by weapons of steel, from fire, from
projectiles, by beheading, mutilation, bites of
animals, especially venomous animals, by the
slaughters and blood-letting of ignorant surgeons,
and death from burns.

Sol regulates the heart, the arteries, the right

eye, the right side in men and the left side in
women ;
the vital spirits and the bilious blood ;
the sight of the right eye in men, and of the left
in women, and all good desires. The diseases due
to the influence of the sun are ephemeral fevers,
syncope, spasm, catarrhs, and diseases of the eyes.

Wlien Sol causes death, it is by plague, by syncope,
or on the field of battle.
Venus presides over the pituitous blood and
semen : over the throat, the breasts, the abdomen,

the uterus and genitalia ;
over taste and smell,
touch and the pleasurable sensations, and the

appetitus concupiscihilis. The diseases due to
Venus are lues venerea, gonorrhoea, priapism,
barrenness from cold and moisture (Venus being

cold and moist), lientery, and abscesses. Deaths
due to her influence are those from poison and

fi-om sexual excess.
Mercury has jurisdiction over the animal spirits,
over the legs and feet, the hands and fingers, the
tongue, the nerves, and the ligaments ;

over taste
and hearing, common sense, imagination and
reason. The diseases that he influences are erratic
and relapsing fevers, mania, phrenitis, deliria.

Jurisdictions of the Planets 43
insanity, epilepsy, convulsion, balbuties, and cough

with profuse expectoration. Under his influence
occur deaths by poison, by witchcraft, and by pro-

cess of law for perjury, forgery, and false money.
Finally, Luna presides over the phlegm, the
brain, the left eye, the right side in women and

the left in men, the stomach, and the membranes ;
over the sight of the right eye in women and of
the left in men ;

over fear ;
over quotidian fevers,
epilepsy, apoplexy, fatuity, vomiting, fluxes, such
as diarrhoea and menorrhagia, dropsy, and cold

abscesses. She brings those deaths that occur
fiom superpurgation and from drowning.
It would seem, from the several jurisdictions
here assigned to Mercury and Luna, that those
whom we call lunatics ought properly to be called
Mercurials, for though the moon rules the brain,
Mercury has jurisdiction, as we have seen, over
mania, phrenitis, delirium, and insanity ;

and,
strictly speaking, no one with any of these maladies
ought to be called a lunatic. Lunacy in the strict
sense is fatuity interrupted by lucid intervals, as
we shall find further on, and this is the sense that
it had in law dovm to the passing of the Lunacy

Acts. Until these enactments, the legal meaning
of a lunatic was a fatuous or demented person
who had, nevertheless, intervals of lucidity

;
and
though in common speech the meaning became
generalised, and the term was used to include all
insane persons, whatever the nature of their in-
sanity, and whether it was interrupted or con-

tinuous, yet lawyers, who are always both more
precise and more conservative in the application of
terms than other men, continued to use the term

lunacy in its strict sense till the middle of the last
century.
With respect to the corporature, or the bodily
configuration, which, with the corresponding mental
disposition, is aspected by the several Planets, there

is much misapprehension ;
and the true doctrine is
corrupted, and attenuated to a mere remnant. We

are apt to consider that a Saturnine person is taci-
turn, cynical, and disposed to be malevolent ;

that
a Jovial person is good-humoured and hilarious;
that a Mercurial person is restless and vagrant, not

continuing in one stay ;
that a Martial person has
a soldierly bearing ;
and that a Lunatic is out of
his mind ;
and although we should not be wrong
in attributing these mental dispositions to the
persons so denominated, we should give them but

The Planetary Temperaments 45
a tithe of the mental qualities the names actually

connote; and we have forgotten altogether, not
only that there is a corporature, or bodily con-

figuration, that accompanies and indicates each
mental temperament, but also that there are
persons of Solar and Venereal temperament as

well as those that are Jovial, Saturnine, and so
forth. The corporature, and the mental disposi-
tion that accompanies and is signified by it, are
precise and detailed, so that the expert astrologer
can tell at a glance what sort of person he has to

deal with, and what Planet has jurisdiction over
that persons life, fortunes, and health.
Those, for instance, who are Saturnine, may be

known by the following physical signs : they are
moderately fieshy, of medium height, their counte-
nances are long, their eyes large and black, their

teeth very large ;
they are of dark complexion,
have scanty straight black hair, thin beards, are
pigeon-toed, and of truculent bearing. When well
afiected by the Planet, persons of such a corpo-

rature are profound thinkers, investigators of
mysteries, prudent, reticent, inclined to solitude,
suspicious, laborious, patient, persevering, lovers of
work, eager for gain, and masterful. When ill

affected by the Planet, they are sad, melancholy,
austere, timid, miserly, querulous, taciturn, soli-
tary, followers of the Black Art, suspicious, un-

truthful, malevolent, untrustworthy to the point
of fraudulence, treacherous, and often suffer the
penalties of the law for their misdeeds.
The favoured of Jupiter are, in configuration,
fleshy, with rounded knees ;

they are of medium
stature, elegant and majestic in bearing. In com-
plexion they are rosy ;
their eyes are dark and
rather large. They are prone to baldness, and
have thick reddish beards. When well affected
by the Planet, such persons are simple, just, pious,
religious, faithful, humane, merciful, hilarious,
giacious, open, affable, liberal, splendid, magnani-

mous and law-abiding. When ill affected, they
have these qualities in excess. They are super-

stitious, sentimental, humanitarian, prodigal and
vain-glorious.
The subjects of Mars are thin and well-propor-

tioned ;
they are pale, with blue eyes and abundant
curly hair, not only on the head but on the body.
They are of middle stature, with large heads, round
faces, small eyes, large nostrils, long teeth and
military bearing. When well affected, they are

strong, robust, brave, greedy of fame, irascible,
given to hunting and games, vindictive, impatient

of control, domineering, delighting in war and
battles, contemptuous of danger, agile, ready,
hasty, self-confident, and indifferent to religion.
When ill affected, they are impious, unjust, arro-

gant, merciless, seditious, foolhardy, quarrelsome,
brawlers, homicides, tyrants, incendiaries, robbers,
thieves and bandits.
Those under the jurisdiction of Luna are tall,
pale, good-looking, with light hair and eyes, and

with becoming beards. When well affected, they
are ingenious, subtle, sincere, open, honest and

well-mannered ;
when ill affected, they are stupid
even to fatuity, timid and restless. It is very
important to know that, as might be expected, it
is when the moon is waxing that they are well

affected, and they are ill affected when she is on
the wane. Here we see the origin of the legal
doctrine, already alluded to, that a lunatic is a
demented person who has lucid intervals, these
intervals being when the moon is in the first two

of her phases, while the periods of fatuity are the
last two phases, when she is past the full, and her
light is waning.
The votaries of Mercury are characterised by

medium stature, a well-proportioned body, pleasing
complexion, and yellow hair. They are graceful,
with very small hands, feet and teeth ;

they have
scanty beards, thin voices, and are rapid in their
movements. When well affected, they are witty,
studious, quick to learn, even without being taught
they are disputatious, wise, cautious, prudent,

easily accommodating themselves to persons and
circumstances ;
sociable and inquisitive. When ill
affected, they are unstable, forgetful, apt to have

hallucinations and to talk nonsense, liars, para-
sites, flatterers, deceitful, perfidious, perjurers,
calumniators, forgers of wills, coiners of false
money, meddlers in things that do not concern
them, and dangerous counsellors.

Under the jurisdiction of Venus are those of
medium stature, succulent, with delicate and fair
complexions, good-looking, with crisp brown or

blackish hair, dark eyes, narrow eyebrows, narrow
chests, and thick thighs. When well affected, they
are indolent, bland, pious, religious, merciful,
peaceful, sociable, lovers of the arts of singing and

of music, elegant and graceful, and given to deli-
cacies and pleasures. They are lucky in love and

in friendship, forgiving, and impatient under mis-

fortune. ' Wlien ill affected, they are timid, im-
prudent, effeminate, lecherous, and betrayers of

women.
Lastly, the characters of those who are ruled
by the Sun are a large head, a round and glowing

face, large eyes, long hair which at length falls out
and leaves them bald, and a sallow complexion.

When well affected, they are pious, just, upright,
faithful, open, chaste, worldly-wise, apt to anger,

but magnanimous, honourable, splendid and magni-
ficent, warm in Iriendship, and lovers of their wives
and children.
It will have been noticed that the descriptions

of the bodily configurations are not very definite,
and we are warned by Maninius to be very careful

of judging of the dominant Planet by the con-
figuration of the body. This, he says, is a part of

the science in which many fail ;
and it is not yet
fully ascertained. The knowledge is to be attained
by long experience only. Maninius had, indeed,

good reason to inculcate caution in interpreting
the indications obtained from Astrological lore, for

he sought to clench the arguments with which he
was defending Astrology from the attacks of
M. 4
Gassendi, by predicting the death of the sceptic
upon a certain date. When the date came round

in due course, Gassendi unexpectedly refused to
die, and Maninius then discovered a mistake in his
calculation which had led him to antedate the

event. He corrected the error, revised his predic-
tion, and fixed another and later date, beyond
which Gassendi could not survive. He seems,
however, to have overlooked a second time some
material factor, for his opponent lived on, and
laughed him to scorn, giving much occasion to

the enemy to blaspheme. Maninius, unfortunately,
lacked the resource of Dean Swift, who was con-
fronted with the same difficulty by the survival
of the astrologer Partridge. Swift, under the
pseudonym of Isaac Bickerstaff, predicted that
Partridge would die on the twenty-ninth of March

next, about eleven at night, of a raging fever;
and, when the date was past, published a circum-
stantial account of the death, with a confession by

Partridge of the imposture of his predictions. In
vain Partridge denied the facts, for Bickerstaff
gave five conclusive reasons for disbelieving these
protestations, and for holding that Partridge
was in fact dead, and in denying the fact had

Medical Astrology 61
carried beyond the grave his proclivity for telling
lies.
When it is remembered that any Sign of the

Zodiac may be in any of the Houses of Heaven
that any Planet may be in any House, and may
have any aspect, sextile, quartile, trine, or opposi-
tion, towards the Ascendent and towards the other

Planets ;
and that the various Planets have by
these means their powers reinforced or attenuated
in the most various degrees ;
and when we remem-
ber further the different powers that different
Planets have over different persons and different
diseases, it will easily be seen that the varia-

tions are virtually infinite, and the whole scheme
far too complicated to put to practical applica-
tion.
In practice, however, the calculations of the

physician were narrowed down to a small number
of factors. Arnaldus de Villanova, a physician of
great repute in the thirteenth century, limits these
as follows :
A perfect physician, he says, should
constantly bear in mind eight Astrological factors ;
and then we are disappointed to find that he

enumerates only seven. It is no doubt the want of
the eighth factor that has falsified the predictions
42
that I have ventured to make in accordance with
his rules. Be that as it may, the factors that he

enumerates, as necessary for the perfect physician
to consider, are these :
1. The thing concerning which the inquiry is
made.
2. The Sign that is in the Ascendent.
3. The Lord of it. (Whether of the Sign or of

the Ascendent is not clear.)
4. The Sign that is in the House of the thing

inquired about. (In the case of sickness,
this may be either the first House, the
House of Life ;
or the eighth, the House
of Death ;
or the sixth, the House of
Diseases.)
5. The Lord of it. (Again, whether of the
Sign or of the House is not clear.)
6. Its (?) relation to the Ascendent.
7. Its relation to the Moon.

These are to be interpreted in the following
manner
1. The Ascendent and the Lord of it signify
the sick man.
2. The middle of Heaven (the tenth House)
signifies his physician.

3. The sixth House and the Lord of it signify
, his disease.
4. The fourth House and the Lord of it signify
his physic.
The consequences are these :
If there is evil in the Ascendent, or if the Lord
of the Ascendent is subject to adverse influences,
the patient will do badly ;

but if these are pro-
pitious, he will do well.
If there should be a benevolent or propitious

Lord of the tenth House, which signifies the
physician, then his treatment will do the patient
good ;
but if the Lord should be evil, then the
patient will be injured by the treatment.
If there should be a powerful influence for good

in the eighth House, which is the House of Death,
the patient will be quickly cured ;
but if there
should be an evil influence in this House, he will
go from bad to worse.
Similarly, if there is good fortune in the fourth
House, which is the House of Remedies, his medi-
cine will do him good, but if evil fortune, the

medicine will make him worse.
If the Sign in the Ascendent should be mobile,

and Luna should be in a mobile Sign, such as Aries,
Cancer, Libra, or Capricorn, and the Lord of the

Ascendent should also be in a mobile Sign, the
illness will soon terminate, either well or badly,
especially if Luna is in swift motion. If, however,
it happens contrarily, it signifies a long illness,
especially if Luna is in a stable Sign, as Taurus,
Leo, Scorpio or Aquarius.
If the Lord of the Ascendent should be pro-

pitious, and fiee from adverse influences of other
Planets, and Luna likewise, the illness will end
favourably, especially if Luna and the Lord of the
Ascendent should aspect favourably the Lord of

the eighth House, which is the House of Death
that is, if they should be in sextile, and especially
if they should be in trine, to that House.

But if Luna, or the Lord of the Ascendent, or
the Lord of the House of Sickness, which is the
sixth, sliould be combust and retrograde, or if the
Lord of the Ascendent should be in the House of

Death in conjunction with Mars or Saturn, both of
them malevolent Planets, then there is no hope.
Also, if the moon should be in conjunction with
a propitious Planet in the Ascendent, and should

be moving forward and her light waxing, and both
should be free from adverse influences, then the
disease will be quickly cured ;

but if the moon
should be in the House of Death, the patient
cannot be saved.
And generally, whenever Luna and the Lord of
the Ascendent are subject to adverse influences, it
is a mortal sign, and we must fear death, or relapse,
or long illness ;
but when they are fortunately
situated, and aspected by well-disposed powers, as
when Luna and the Lord are in the Ascendent,
then it is a good sign, and ad vitam.

But if the House of Death, and the Lord of the
House of Inflrmity, or the Lord of the House of
Death, are fortified by situation or by aspect,
especially when they aspect the moon adversely,
then it is a bad sign, and ad mortem ;
but when
they are impeded or weakened, it is a good sign.
Now the position of the heavenly bodies in the
Houses of Heaven alters from hour to hour, and a
fatal disposition of them now may alter to a favour-
able one in a couple of hours, and vice versa.
Luna, which is now in the Ascendent, and therefore

smiles upon the patient, will, in fourteen or fifteen
hours time, be in the eighth House, and condemn

him to death. It is manifestly of the utmost im-
portance, therefore, to fix upon the correct hour
and minute for setting up the tabula coelestiarum.

It is to be feared, however, that in this matter
astrological physicians allowed themselves a good
deal of latitude. There are two fixed moments,
one or other of which should be taken as that on
which the scheme should be erected. One of these
is the moment of birth ;
the other is the decumbi-
ture.
It will be seen that the scheme of the nativity

of Charles XII sets forth the year, the month, the
day, hour, and minute of birth, and the scheme is
erected accordingly, and admits of no doubt or

variation. There was, however, a process known
to Astrologers by the name of Rectification of the
Nativity, a process the rules of which are difficult
to discover, but the practical result was to shift
the heavenly bodies from positions that were in-

convenient to the Astrologer to positions more
suitable to his purpose. I should never myself
make an alteration of this nature, which does not
seem to me quite justifiable, but, emboldened by

this established astrological practice, I have ven-
tured to make a trifling alteration in the scheme
of nativity that I have placed before you as that of

Charles XIL As originally erected, it referred not
The Nativity of Charles XII 57
to the year 1682 but to the year 1594, and to the
moment of birth, not of Charles XII, but of a
previous King of Sweden, namely, Gustavus

Adolphus, the Lion of the North, and the Bulwark
of the Protestant Faith. In working it out, I found
that by no ingenuity and by no artifice could I
make the predictions to be drawn from this scheme

of nativity fit in with the known career of that
great and successful commander. They suited,
however, with such surprising accuracy and appro-

priateness the career of his successor Charles XII
that I felt it was a pity to allow myself to be
fettered, in applying them to him, by a punctilio of
needless scrupulosity. I did not venture to take
that liberty with the facts that astrologers were
accustomed to take, by altering the positions of

the heavenly bodies in the Houses of Heaven ;
I merely altered the date by less than a century,

and substituted the name of one King of Sweden
for another.
In estimating the scheme of the heavens re-

lating to the illness of a patient, it is always
advisable to compare it with the scheme of his
nativity. If that Planet which was Lord of the
Ascendent in the nativity is favourably placed and
fortunately aspected in the scheme of the decumbi-
ture, and is neither combust nor retrograde, the

patient will be strengthened and live, and vice
versd.
These are the considerations that should weigh

with a perfect physician ;
but the authority I am
now quoting from lived seven centuries ago, and
the world was very different then from what it is
now. It would appear that in those remote and

benighted times there actually were physicians
who were not perfect, and to temper the difficulties
of astrological practice to these weaker brethren,
they were taught a method of procedure that is
shorter and easier, but less accurate. It will have

been noticed how prominent a place is assigned to
the moon in the explanations that have been given,
although in setting, up the scheme no separate
mention was made of her, but she was just lumped
in together with the other Planets, which had
presumably equal value, except in as far as their
power was subdued or enhanced by their position.
In the modified and abbreviated scheme that was

drawn up for the guidance of the general practi-
tioner, the whole burden lay upon the moon. It
was recognised that a busy practitioner could not

The Facilitates Naturales 59
be expected to have the correct positions of the

Planets always at his fingers ends ;
but he could
scarcely be ignorant of the phase in which the
moon was, of whether she was waxing or waning,
or even of the Sign she occupied. Consequently,
except to the very expert to the dwellers in the
Harley Street and Wimpole Street of that day

the moon alone was the guide to treatment and
prognosis.
I must now go back for a moment, and call
your attention to certain Facultates Naturales

possessed by the human body, and governed by
the Planets. These are the Retentrix, the Coctrix,
the Expultrix, the Attractrix, the Vegatatrix and
the Generatrix ;
and each has, of course, its corre-
sponding complexion. Retention, for instance, is
favoured by cold and drought. Digestion by heat

and moisture, Expulsion by cold and moisture, and
Attraction by heat and drought.
It follows, of course, that retentive medicines,
given to check fluxes of any kind, should be ad-
ministered either when Luna is in a sign that is
cold and dry, such as Taurus, Virgo or Capricorn,
or when one of these signs is in the Ascendent

and at such times retentive drugs should be not
only administered but prepared, for their virtues
are not in themselves, but are part of the celestial

virtue communicated from the celestial bodies,
from which all virtues are derived. So that reten-

tive medicines, such as sugar of roses, diaciton and
diapapaver, should be prepared as well as admini-
stered when one of these cold and dry signs is in
the Ascendent, or when the moon is in one of them.

If, however, we wish to reinforce the expulsive
faculty, as for instance in constipation or amenor-
rhoea, the medicament must be prepared and
administered when Luna is in Cancer, Scorpio or
Pisces, or when one of them is in the Ascendent

for these Signs are cold and moist. In this case we
must be careful, however ;
for if a purgative is
given when the motion of Luna is retrograde, the
expulsion will be retrograde, and instead of purga-

tion we shall cause vomiting ;
but if we are so
incautious and ignorant as to give purgatives when

the moon is retrograde in Leo, which has an aspect
to the heart and blood, we shall produce vomiting
of blood.
Diseases of plethora are very dangerous when
a man is taken sick upon a full moon, and diseases
of wasting are most dangerous when he is taken

The Moon and the Humours 61
sick upon a waning moon. Let me entreat you
therefore to give physic for inanition when the

moon is near the full, and for plethora when she
has lost her light ;
and remember that a humour
can scarcely be diminished but when the moon
is waning, nor increased except when she is
waxing.
It is very bad when, in the beginning of a sick-
ness, the moon is in a Sign of the nature of the
peccant humour, as in the hot and dry Signs Aries,

Leo or Sagittarius, when the peccant humour is
choler ;
the cold and dry Signs Taurus, Capricorn
or Virgo, when it is melancholy ;
the hot and moist
Signs Gemini, Libra or Aquarius, when it is blood
or the cold and moist signs Cancer, Scorpio or
Pisces, when it is phlegm.
Naturally, when she is in a fiery Sign, it is easy
to amend a disease of phlegm, but if choler abound,

wait until she is in a watery Sign.
We see, therefore, how very important it is to

consider the aspect of the heavens before we begin
our treatment ;
and though it is true that patients
do sometimes recover under the care of ignorant
physicians who take no account of these things,
yet in such cases, says my authority, the patient
recovers by accident, and not by the skill of the

physician.
An additional reason for studying the motion

of the moon in illness is because this motion regu-
lates the critical days. A crisis is defined as a
swift and vehement motion of a disease, leading to
recovery or death. Strictly speaking, those only
are true crises which lead to recovery, but in-

accuracy and corruption have crept into the mean-
ing, until some authors enumerate six kinds of
crisis, which I need not enumerate here ;
but all
authorities are agreed, and their agreement seems

to me to arise from everyone copying the words of
his predecessor, that for a true and perfect crisis
six conditions must be fulfilled.
In the first place, the crisis must be complete,

that is to say, the whole of the materia peccans
must be evacuated; for instance, all the bile in
tertian fever, and all the phlegm in quotidian fever.
If the whole of the materia peccans is not evacu-
ated, it is evident that the patient may relapse.
The second condition is that none of the pec-
cant material should remain. This is evidently
quite as important as the first, that all of it should
be evacuated.
Critical Days 63
The third condition is that health must be
completely regained, and there must be no terrible

accidents or pernecabilibus, such as running of the
eyes.
The fourth condition is that the crisis must
be manifest ;
that is to say, there must be a
sensible evacuation of the materia peccans.
The fifth condition is that the crisis must make
indication, and as to the meaning of this, I have
come, after long and careful study, to the con-
clusions on another subject arrived at by my
authority, and piously expressed by him in the
words, Deus solus cognoscit, quia habet iieque
caput neque caudam.
The sixth condition is that the crisis must
occur on a critical day.
The critical days are governed entirely by the
motion and positions of the moon. It is clear that
there can be no crisis for good except materia
peccante coctd, and it is evident that the materia

peccans cannot be digested in as short a time as
two days ;
consequently the first and second days
of a disease cannot be critical. The third day is
intercadent, and the fourth is indicative, because,
manifestly, whatever happens on the fourth day

will happen with exaggerated force on the seventh.

The fifth day again is intercadent, and of no
significance, nor is the sixth of any. The seventh
is the first critical day, for then the moon is in
quartile to the decumbiture, and is necessarily in
a Sign of opposite nature in all respects to that in
which she was at the decumbiture. If she was in
Aries at the decumbiture, she will be on the

seventh day in Cancer. Now, Aries is hot and
dry. Cancer cold and moist ;

Aries is masculine.
Cancer feminine ;
Aries diurnal. Cancer nocturnal.
The quartile aspect is thus thoroughly hostile, and
whatever process Luna favours at the decumbiture
she will oppose when she reaches the quartile. At
the decumbiture she favoured the disease, for
otherwise the disease would not have occurred
at the quartile, therefore, she opposes the disease,
and makes for a favourable crisis.
The eighth day is neutral, the ninth interca-
dent, the tenth neutral, and the eleventh indicative,
for whatever happens on the eleventh will happen

with exaggerated force on the fourteenth, which is
the second and most critical day, for then the

moon is in opposition to the decumbiture, and
with all her might counteracts all that took place

The Decumhiture 65
at the decumhiture. The next critical day is, of
course, the twenty-first, when she is again in
quartile, and finally, between the twenty-seventh

and twenty-eighth she comes into conjunction. If
the disease has not been ended by crisis on one

of the three critical days, the reinforcement that
it now receives fiom the conjunction of the moon

converts the acute disease into a chronic, and
henceforth it is governed no longer by the posi-
tions of the moon, but is regulated, according to
the same laws, by the sun. The next crisis will
not take place therefore for two months, when the

sun will be in quartile to the decumhiture.
Of course, the favourable or unfavourable
character of the crisis will depend largely upon
whether, on the critical day, the moon is favour-
ably aspected by good Planets, or unfavourably

influenced by bad ones.
It will be seen that all of these influences and

dates depend upon the moment of the decumbi-
ture, which is described as the first punct of time
of the invasion of the disease ;
and this, as Galen
says, is very hard to find. It is easy, indeed, to
find the decumhiture in the literal sense, that is to
say, the time when the patient takes to his bed

M. 5
but when the beginning of the sickness is, that,
says Culpeper, is the question ;

for a lusty stout
man bears the disease longer before he takes to

his bed than a puny sickly man : a meer suspition
of sicknesse will send a faint-hearted man to bed ;
you may perswade him he is sick whether he is or

no. Notwithstanding, in most acute diseases, as
also in many others, as Falling Sickness, Palsies,
Apoplexies, and Pleurisies, tis an easy thing to

find the precise time of the invasion of a disease.
The best opinion is that that moment of time is to
be taken in which a man finds a manifest paine or
hurt in his body ;

for instance, when a man hath
got a Fever, usually the head akes certain dayes
before ;
this is not the Fever, but a messenger or
forerunner of the Fever ;
the true beginning is
when a horrour or trembling invades the Sick.
Certain objections to these doctrines did not

escape the notice of the astrologers who taught
them.
If, says one,
the crisis depends on the
motion of the moon and her aspect to the other
Planets, what is the reason, if two men be taken
ill at one and the same time, that yet the crisis of
one falls out well, and not so the other? The

reasons are manifold. The virtue working is
Objections and Answers 67
changed according to the diversity of the virtue

receiving ;
for you all know the sun makes the
clay hard and the wax soft, it makes the cloth
white and the face black ;

so then, if one be a
child, whose nature is hot and moist, the other
a man in the prime of life, whose nature is hot and
dry, and the third an old man, whose nature is cold
and dry, the crisis works diversely because their

natures are different.
Secondly, in the Spring time, diseases are most
obnoxious to a child, because his nature is hot
and moist. A disease works most violently with
a choleric man in Summer, with a melancholy man

in Autumn, and with a phlegmatic man in Winter.
Thirdly, if at the decumbiture the moon was

aspected by Mars, whose nature is hot and dry, if
the disease be of heat and drought it is mightily

aggravated : not so if it be cold.
Fourthly, the complexions of the patients may

be different ;
the one hot and dry, the other cold
and moist. If the disease be hot and dry, it will
not be so violent upon a cold and moist body as

on a hot and dry.
Fifthly, their nativities may not agree. If the

moone be aspected by Saturne or Mars at the
52
nativity, the disease is dangerous ;

not so if she
be aspected by Jupiter or Venus ;
or Saturn may
be Lord of one nativity and not of the other, and
then he may hurt the one and not the other, for
the Devil will not hurt his own. If you can possibly
get the nativities, you shall not err.
For example,
I know, says my authority, three children born
at one and the same time. At five years of age

they all three had convulsion, whereby they were
all three lame of one leg, the boyes on the right,
and the girl on the left. At 14 they dyed alto-
gether on one and the same day of the small pox.

To us, with our present knowledge, and require-
ments of evidence, and our ways of thought, all
this appears such a farrago of tomfoolery that it
is difficult to understand how it can have been

seriously entertained by men of ordinary intelli-
gence ;
and yet we know that it was in fact be-
lieved by the rarest intellects of their time, some

of them, like Roger Bacon and Albertus Magnus,
among the rarest intellects of all time ;
and it
is an interesting exercise to try and carry our

minds back and put ourselves as far as we can in
the position of our forefathers. We shall then
find it easy to understand why the system was

Sir William Hamilton's Dictum 69
maintained, and not difficult to discover how it
originated. The first is explained by the over-
whelming power of authority, the last by the belief

that was overthrown by Copernicus.
In the first place, we must imagine ourselves
living on an earth that is the centre of the uni-
verse, and that to the earth, and especially to its
human inhabitants, the rest of the universe is sub-
servient. The universe was created to serve a
certain purpose,
the diapason closing full in man.
That anything could exist for any other purpose

than the service of mankind was not conceived,
was probably not conceivable, by our forefathers.
At a time almost within the memory of some now
living, one of our leading philosophers declared
that in the world there is nothing great but man.
If he had expressed all that was in his mind, no
doubt he would have said in the world there is
nothing great but Scotchmen ;

but taking the
declaration as he made it, it summarises effectively
the attitude of our ancestors towards the cosmos.
It was made for their benefit. To them there was

no greater paradox than that
Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark, unfathomed caves of ocean bear,
Full many a flower born to blush unseen.
is
And waste (mark the word) its sweetness on the desert air.
This being so, of what use are the heavenly

bodies ? The overpowering and incalculable value
to man of the sun is evident enough. By its daily
transit through the sky it makes the difference
between the day, the time of mans activity, and
night, the time of his repose. By its annual transit
through the Signs of the Zodiac it makes the
differences among the seasons, and so regulates his
food supply, whether animal or vegetable, his com-
fort, and his welfare in a thousand particulars.
Here we have the root of the whole matter ;
but
to understand it fully we must remember that the
sun was but one of seven Planets, all resembling
him in so many important respects that it was im-
possible not to attribute to them powers corre-
sponding with his, if different from his. So that,
if the sun had power over the affairs of men, so

had the other Planets ;
if his power varied accord-
ing to the Sign he occupied, so did theirs ;
if his
power altered with his height above the horizon,

so did theirs. In a world in which natural law was
unknown, and everything seemed to happen by

chance, the mind clutched at anything that offered
an explanation of the ways in which things happen.
Here was an explanation ready to hand, and need-
ing only study and interpretation.
07'igin of Astrology 71
The moon is evidently complementary to the
sun. Her power is greatest when she is in opposi-
tion, and at this time she antagonises the sun by

producing a colourable imitation of daylight at
night, and thus interfering with his power of regu-
lating light and darkness. This is naturally taken
as an instance of a general law, that opposition
means antagonism, a meaning that is now become

fixed and general ;
and since opposition is but one
of several differences of position, it follows that
every such difference trine, quartile and sextile
means some difference of influence. Again, the
moon, as far as her power extends, antagonises the

sun, and works against him. But the sun is mani-
festly and immensely beneficial to the human race,
and is a benevolent power ;

consequently, the moon
is malevolent and injurious. Both sun and moon
are but samples and members of the family of
Planets, and whatever characters they possess
must be shared by the rest of the family. The
other Planets, therefore, must be benevolent or
malevolent in their degree, and must exercise their
powers, as the sun and moon do, according to their
position above the horizon, that is in the Houses

of Heaven, or in the Signs of the Zodiac.
As the sun undoubtedly by its position and

movements produces the seasons, and as the moon
has faculties and qualities of like kind, though
inferior in power, it follows that she too regulates
some natural phenomena of minor importance to

the seasons. Such minor natural phenomena are
displayed by the weather ;
and the belief that the
moon regulates the weather is the one astrological

doctrine that still displays vitality. The other
Planets are irregular in their movements, being
now rapid, now slow, now direct, now retrograde ;
clearly, therefore, their influence will be exerted

upon those great natural events that are irregular
and occasional in their incidence ;
and thus it is
that Saturn produces intense frost, inundations
and tempests ;
that Mars regulates thunder and
lightning and the invasion of pirates ;
that Venus
brings beneflcial floods, rains, and mists ;
that
under Mercury occur droughts and squalls, and

so forth.
All these catastrophes have their effects on the
welfare and fortunes of men, and consonantly with
the belief already stated, were conclusively pre-

sumed to take place for no other purpose than to
affect, in one direction or other, the lives and

The Planets and Disease 73
fortunes of men. It would be strange if, after
being credited with these powers for this purpose,

the Planets were not further endowed with the
power of causing those catastrophes, equally in-
explicable otherwise, and still more alfecting
human welfare, plague, pestilence, and all other
diseases.
In order to produce diseases, the Planets must

influence the humours by whose defect or excess
diseases were produced ;
and since entia non sunt
multiplicanda praeter necessitatem, the Planets
could not influence these humours except by them-
selves possessing and distributing the same ele-
mentary qualities, heat, cold, drought, and moisture,

that characterise the humours. This doctrine was
the easier to establish since it was already known
that these four qualities pervade all things in nature.
The very elements themselves, out of which all
things are compounded, are but embodiments of
the four elementary qualities in their four possible

combinations. Fire is hot and dry, Air is hot and
moist. Earth is cold and dry. Water is cold and
moist. When it is remembered that the four

humours are similarly compounded, yellow bile
being hot and dry, blood hot and moist, black bile
cold and dry, and phlegm cold and moist, it be-

comes evident, even if it were not already certain
from the universal prevalence of these qualities,
that corresponding pairs must be possessed by the
several Planets to give them those powers over

disease that they undoubtedly exercise. This
useful method of the circulus in prohando is not
the only device that our forefathers have be-
queathed to us, and that still serves our purposes
with all its original efficacy.
Wlien we have got thus far, the remaining

doctrines of medical astrology follow naturally by
the development and elaboration of those we

already possess, aided by further analogies, more
or less far-fetched, and by chance coincidences,
such as that already mentioned which led Guy de
^ Chauliac to attribute the great plague of 1345 to

^the conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars in
Aquarius in March of that year.
We should take a very superficial view of

Astrology, however, if we failed to recognise that
beneath all its strange doctrines, and under all its
monstrous assumptions, lies the insatiable craving
of the human mind for explanation. Every event

that happens before us throws down an irresistible
Modern Astrological Doctrines 75
challenge to us to explain it. We are so consti-

tuted that we cannot rest until it is explained
but we are also so constituted that we are apt to

accept as sufficient anything that purports to be
an explanation, even if it rests upon no reasonable
ground, or even if it is a mere verbal explana-
tion that explains nothing. We have discarded
Astrology as a garment that we have outgrown,
even as the snake wriggles itself out of its skin,
and the crab withdraws itself from a rigid envelope

that is too small for it ;
but can we assure our-
selves that we have outgrown and discarded the
mental carapace that renders such beliefs as
Astrology possible? Do not logicians still teach

doctrines every bit as absurd as the doctrines of
Astrology? And even in Medicine itself, do we

never take that for an explanation that is no
explanation? Before we can cast stones at the
Astrologers, have we no windows of our own to
guard ? Let those answer who explain aphasia by

calling it a loss of memory for words ;
who explain
ataxy by calling it loss of the power of coordina-
ting movements ;
who explain a delusion by dis-
covering a lesion in the brain ;
who explain
feeble-mindedness by hereditary influence ;
who
explain hysteria entertained in middle age by

some sexual irregularity committed in youth ;
or
who explain an hypothetical increase of appendi-
citis by an hypothetical increase in the consump-
tion of meat. Surely we have every right to
despise those who attributed all acute diseases to
the influence of the moon, and all chronic diseases
to the influence of the sun, for we know with
assured knowledge that acute diseases are in fact
produced by intestinal stasis, and that chronic
diseases are due to that blessed combination of
words alimentary toxaemia.
ASTROLOGY IN MEDICINE.
To the Editor o/The Lancet.
Sir, trust that with your well-known love of fair play
you will kindly permit me to make a few remai'ks on this
subject and to ask Dr Mercier a few questions of public
interest.
With all respect for the learned doctor, and with due
acknowledgment of his candid admission that astrology was
believed in and seriously studied by the rarest intellects of
their time, some of them, like Roger Bacon and Albertus
Magnus, the rarest intellects of all time, I wish to ask Does :
Dr Mercier think that such rarest intellects were incapable of

distinguishing truth fiom error, and could have accepted the
superstitions associated in their day with astrology ? Surely
not. They accepted astrologia sana as Bacon (Lord Verulam)
accepted it, as a part of physics and discarded superstition.
One might as reasonably proclaim medicine nowadays to be
Correspondence 77
tomfoolei7 , on the ground of the superstitions connected

with it formerly, as Dr Mercier condemns astrology and pro-
nounces it as
dead

officially. Dr Merciers only argument
against astrology on scientific giounds is the worn-out and
utterly unfoimded assertion that it was overthrown by Coper-
nicus !
Dr Mercier eminent man Guy

ridicules the belief of that
de Chauliac that the outbreak of the Black Death in the
middle of the fourteenth century was due to the great con-

junction of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars in Aquarius on
March 24th, Neptune was also in the same sign at
1345.
that time a planet unknown then. Such a doryphory of
gieat planets in Aquarius^ a sign which is found to relate
to epidemic diseases, certainly foreshadowed the outbreak of
a pandemic and if Dr Mercier will compare the periods
;
of gi'eat conjunctions in Aquarius he will find that great

epidemics always coincided therewith. If Dr Mercier had
directed attention to the immense difference made by the
discovery of Uranus and Neptune, he would have recognised
that many mistakes of ancient and mediaeval astrologers were
due to their being unaware of the existence and relative
positions of these distant planets.
Ihope Dr Mercier will forgive me for directing attention
to the above points. I am sure that he meant to be as fair as
possible in his delineation of mediaeval astrology in fact, he ;
proved this intention by the last paragraph but one of his

second lecture. I should be happy to meet Dr Mercier in
friendly debate on this important subject before any learned
society or private assembly.
I am. Sir, yours faithfully,
Alfred J. Pearce.
Dec. Srd., 1913.
*** Mr Pearce makes an appeal for publication which we

have not been able to but the view that the operations
resist,
of nature are mysterious until they are understood cannot be

advanced as a complete defence of mysticism. Ed. L.
To the Editor q/'The Lancet.
Sir, Like yourself,

I am unable to withstand the appeal
that MrPearce makes to me. He asks me whether I think
that Roger Bacon and Albertus Magnus were incapable of
distinguishing truth from error. I hasten to assure him
that in my opinion these eminent men were as incapable of
making a mistake as I am myself. The experience of mankind
throughout the ages shows that clever men never make
mistakes. No clever general has ever been defeated in battle;
no clever judge was ever upset on appeal no clever counsel
;
ever lost a cause no clever theologian ever held an erroneous

;
opinion, or at any rate an opinion that was held to be errone-

ous by other clever theologians ;
no clever doctor ever made a
wrong diagnosis; no clever schoolboy ever needs to have his
exercises corrected in fact ability and infallibility mean the
;
same thing.
Mr Pearce is certainly right in pouring contempt upon my
argument that Copernicus overthrew astrology; at least, he
would have been right if I had made the statement, or if I
had called it an argument.
I should be most happy to accept Mr Pearces challenge
to debate this important subject before a leanied society

were it not that I am at present immersed in a much more
important investigation, which absorbs my whole time and
attention. That Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars, in conjunction
in Aquarius, must have produced the Black Death in the
following year is patent to everyone and needs no demon-
stration, but it required the insight of genius to discover that
the burning of York Minster was due to the superabundance
of snails in a certain back garden early in the same year. It
is the peculiar merit of the adept, be he an astrologer or
merely an haruspex, to recognise the significance of such

coincidences. It seems to have escaped altogether the obser-
vation of the vulgar that this year of grace 1913 has been
Correspondence 79
characterised no less by the superabundance of snails in back

gardens than by the number of conflagrations initiated by
suffragettes. The causal nexus needs no proof but if it did,
;
proof would be found in the fact that in Ireland, from which

snailswere banished by the beneficent action of St Patrick,
and where there are no back gardens, the backs of the houses
being in front, there has been no suffragette incendiarism.
I will not pursue the subject further in this place, but if
Mr Pearce wants any further information he will find it in my
forthcoming book, De Conflagrationibus et de Multitudinibus
Helicidarum in Hortulis Posticis.
I am. Sir, yours faithfully,

Chas. Mercier.
Dec. \Uh, 1913.
SAINTS AND SIGNS
(Part of a third Lecture, which was not delivered, but was
read to the Casual Club, Nov. 1912)
It used to be a point of honour with me, and

I believe with other members of this Club, never
to read up the subject of the evenings discussion.
So to do would be to deprive the discussions of

that casual character which is their distinctive
charm, and which gives its name to the Club. It
is with regret that I have noticed of late years
signs that this honourable understanding is not

maintained, and therefore I have chosen for this
paper a title which will have rendered impracticable

any attempt to acquire information of its subject
from outside sources. If any member present has

been trying to steal a march upon the rest by
looking up the literature of miraculous signs,
adduced in evidence of the truths of Christianity
by the heroes or the victims of canonisation, I
have the pleasure of informing him that he has

been wasting his time; and I may further inform
Peculiarities of the Sovereign 81
those members who have made direct inquiries of
me as to the scope of the subject indicated by my

title, that my answers, while of course strictly
truthful, were intended to mislead, and have, I
trust, served their purpose.

I have here a specimen of a metallic token,
which, if any of you have never seen one, I shall
be glad to hand round I wish I had more, so that

I might present one to each of you as a memento
of this joyful occasion, but the Chancellor of the
Exchequer seizes upon every specimen with such

avidity that they are becoming more and more
scarce and difficult to obtain a metallic token
which serves in this country as the standard of

value, and is known as the sovereign or pound
sterling. If you will let observation with extensive
view survey it on both aspects, you will find that
on the obverse or the reverse I never know which

is which it bears the image, though not the
superscription, of St George of Cappadocia, who
has abandoned the more lucrative occupation of
army contractor in order to follow the more
honourable calling of patron saint.
He is engaged, you will observe, in his cus-

tomary avocation of slaying the dragon, an operation
M. 6
82 Saints and Signs
which he performs in a rather surprising manner.
Chastely attired in a helmet much too large for
him, the weight of which has dislocated his neck,
and mounted on a pony many sizes too small for
him, the saint is in the act of kicking the dragon
in the neck with his bare foot, while the pony

simultaneously kicks the animal on the head with
his off fore, and treads on its abdomen with his
near hind. The triple assault so confounds the
dragon that instead of biting the leg of the saint

or of the pony, both of which are within easy
reach, he retaliates by swearing, which any intelli-
gent dragon must know would avail little against

a Welsh pony (unless indeed the dragon should
swear in Welsh, of which there is no evidence) and
would be quite ineffectual against a saint, especially
a saint who had had as long an experience in the

army as St George of Cappadocia.
George of Cappadocia was a commercial man,

and a very successful commercial man, and no
doubt it is meet and right and our bounden duty
to place upon the standard of value in this com-
mercial country the effigy of a successful commercial
man. But it is not on account of his success in
commerce that the effigy of George appears on the
Patron Saints 83
fronts or backs of our coins. If we wanted to
typify upon our coins the highest development of

the commercial spirit, I suppose we should stamp
them with the image of Lord Rothschild, or of
Mr Rockefeller; but we do not. We stamp them
with the image of St George of Cappadocia, not
because he was a prosperous and successful com-
missary, but because, for some unknown reason,
he subsequently became a saint. At some remote
time, I do not know when or why, George was
chosen as the patron saint of this country, and it
is because he is the patron saint of England that

his image appears on those useful tokens that are
collected with such avidity by the Chancellor of
the Exchequer. Mr Rockefeller would not be
eligible, because he is not a saint.
Patron saints were in past times much more

highly valued and much more frequently employed
than they are now. France has, or had, a patron
in St Louis. I speak without accurate knowledge,
but I believe I am correct in saying that, in the
common phrase, he has joined the ranks of the
unemployed. Scotland placed itself under the

patronage of St Andrew, Ireland of St Patrick,
Wales of St David, Spain of St James; and if I
62
84 Saints and Signs
cannot adduce any other examples, it is because
these are the only nations if we can allow that
Scotland is a nation that remain as they were
before the modern redistribution of the map of
Europe.
But nations were not the only things that had
patron saints. Every family that aspired to county
rank, and indeed, every person who aspired to be
of consequence, had his or her patron saint. Nor
was this all, as they say in Oxford. Every profes-
sion and calling had its patron saint. The patron
saint of medicine was St Luke. Who was the
patron saint of lawyers I do not know, but no
doubt they chose a very powerful one, for their
need was gi'eat ;

or perhaps no saint would consent
to act for them, for of all the Inns of Court it is
curious that not one is named after a saint. As to
other callings, the sailor-men had a patron saint in

* St Botolph, ferrymen in St Christopher, fishermen
in St Peter, shoemakers in St Crispin, butchers in
St Bartholomew, huntsmen in St Hubert and so

on. I need not remind you that to this day every
church has its patron saint, but you may not know
that every part of the human body, and every
ailment of the human body had its patron saint.

Patron Saints 85
The head was under the patronage of St Ottila;
the neck acknowledged St Blasius ;

the body,
St Lawrence; the legs and feet, St Rochus and
St John ;
and thereby hangs a curious tale, as we
shall see presently.
Except for countries and churches, patron

saints are not now much utilised ;
but it is evident,
from their universal employment in former times,

that they were once of great importance. At the
present day, a patron is a merely ornamental
personage. He gives his name, and he is usually
expected to give a subscription, but beyond this,
his only function is to confer respectability. In

former times, however, his functions were much
more active. Patron, I may remind you, is corre-
lative with client, as father with child, or master

with servant. A child necessarily implies a father,
and without a father can no child be. A master
implies a servant, and where there is a servant,

there there must be a master. And similarly,
patron and client are correlative. There can be

no patron without a client, and no client without
a patron. For this reason, I object to and resent

the custom that has recently arisen, of tradesmen
calling their customers clients, especially as in the
86 Saints and Signs
same breath they ask their customers for patron-
age. A master might as well ask his servant for
orders, or a father expect a tip from his child, as
a patron ask his client for patronage.

The relation of patron and client was the
relation of protector and protected. I dont know
whether those who placed themselves under the
patronage of a saint called themselves his clients,
but undoubtedly they invoked and expected his

protection ;
and it was for the sake of protection
that they provided themselves with patron saints.
We must remember that in the days when men

provided themselves with patron saints, no one
could afford to be withovit protection. We have
only to pay attention to the litany to realise how
urgent was the need. The litany is one long prayer
for protection. We pray to be protected fi*om
evil and mischief, from the crafts and assaults of
the devil, from the wrath of God, from lightning
and tempest, from plague, pestilence and famine,
from battle and murder, and from sudden death.
We pray for protection for all that travel by land
or by water, for all prisoners and captives, for all
sick persons (against their doctors I suppose), and

for all sorts and conditions of men.
Functions of Patron Saints 87
111 those days, the modern conception of the

reign of law, in the sense of the inexorableness of
natural causation, had not yet been attained.
Things happened in those days, not in obedience

to natural laws, but according to caprice, and to
whether the devil got a chance when God was not

attending, or when the saints, his ministers, were
pre-occupied with other affairs. The Almighty
was too august to be approached directly. Indeed,
it seems to have been assumed that he occupied
the position of a constitutional sovereign, and
acted only on the advice or the intercession of his

ministers, the saints, so that it was of the first
importance to have the protection and favour of

a powerful and influential saint.
AVhen clans or nations joined battle, their war-
cry was the name of their patron saint, who was
expected to fight on the side of his votaries or
clients, to see that they had all the luck and came
out top dog. Not infrequently, the saint came

down on purpose, and in bodily presence led them
to the attack. Many such instances are on record,
and it is worth notice that, whoever the saint that
thus interpreted his obligations, he was always
mounted on a white horse.
88 Saints and Signs
Although wars were very frequent in mediaeval
times, it would be a mistake to suppose, as

historians before the present generation seemed
to suppose, that the whole time of the whole male
population of the world was occupied in fighting,

and in nothing else. No doubt, in times when
there were no newspapers, no novels, no theatres,
no cricket, no football, no sufiragists, no divorce
court, no kinematogiaphs and no parliamentary
debates, people must have sufiered terrible bore-
dom, and would have been driven now and then

to do a little wholesome fighting from sheer vacancy
of mind ;
and no doubt, when there were no motor
buses, no taxi-cabs and no municipal tram-cars,
the normal increase of population must have
required some other check to keep it within the
bounds of the means of subsistence ;

and so people
plunged into war to save themselves from famine
but still, the laity did not live wholly on acorns
and beech-mast, nor the clergy on Greek roots,
and therefore some industrial occupations must

have been followed ;
and we know as a matter of
fact that some were followed; and whatever a
mans occupation might be, whether of war or
peace, it was necessary, if he was to have any luck,
Specialist Saints 89
that he should have a patron saint ;

and hence it
was that a patron saint presided over every trade

and calling. Not even thieving could prosper
except under the patronage of St Nicholas.
My own occupation had not then reached the
perfection that it has now attained, and in those
days there were maladies that baffled the resources

of medical art as it then was, and defied all the
drugs in the pharmacopoeia, reinforced as that

then was by many potent and valuable remedies
that the ignorance and indifibrence of a later age
has sufiered to fall into disuse. Pounded earth-
worms, ants eggs, asses dung, the urine of a bull

orstrange alternativeof a virgin, vipers fat, the
water that had been used for washing a corpse

all these, incredible as it appears, sometimes failed
to cure ;
and then there was no resource left but
to go to the celestial Harley Street, and consult
a specialist saint. For the celestial Harley Street
had as many saintly specialists as its mundane
successor has now of specialists who are, perhaps,
not altogether saintly. St Apollonius was the

leading authority on toothache; St Avertin ap-
propriated my own specialty of lunacy ;
St Benedict
practised in stone and other diseases of the
90 Saints and Signs
bladder; St Hubert specialised in hydrophobia;
St John in epilepsy; St Vitus in chorea; St Maur
in gout ;
and St Anthony in erysipelas. Of course,
it was not to be expected that everyone should
know the right saint to go to in any particular
malady, any more than the man in the street
knows at the present time precisely the best
specialist, who is not a saint, to consult for the
malady with which he may happen to be afl3icted.
It would have been as absurd to go for ones gout
to St Apollonius, the President, if one may so put
it, of the celestial College of Dentists, as for the

toothache to St Maur, whose specialty was gout.
In cases of difficulty, it was necessary to consult
a priest, as one now consults a general practi-
tioner.
Of course, in those days as in these, the fee
had to be considered. Guineas had not then been

coined, and payment was usually made in candles,
burnt at the shrine of the saint, a mode of re-
muneration that, for my own part, I am glad to
say has been abandoned. This method of payment
was rather after that of the sister profession than
of modern medicine. The saint had a number of

candles marked on his brief, as it were, and unless
Surgeons and Mental Disease 91
the retainer was satisfactory, he refused to look at

the papers. No doubt there were needy saints,
not too scrupulous, who would undertake any case
for a candle or two, whether they were qualified

to treat it or not; just as now there are sixpenny
1
doctors, and surgeons who will undertake a case of

mental disease; but it is to be hoped that the
leaders of the profession had more conscience, and
that a saint who specialised on blindness, for

instance, would no more undertake a dislocation

or a fracture than a Chancery leader would under-
take the defence of a prisoner at the Old Bailey,

or a reputable surgeon would treat a patient
sufiering from mental disorder.
So far, then, our mediaeval ancestors were
thoroughly well provided with patrons. There
was scarcely any occasion in life that had not
a saint who had specialised in its requirements
and was ready to supply them for a consideration
for a sufficient number of candles. But it is
evident that such a complete equipment of saints
could not have been suddenly, nor even rapidly

constituted. It must have been the gi'owth of
years and of generations ;
and moreover, we must
remember that there was a time, at the beginning
92 Saints and Signs
of the Christian era, when, though sins were very
many, saints were very few, and until the large
additions made to the noble army of martyrs in
the reign of Diocletian, there could not possibly
have been saints enough to go round; and if we

go further back, and recede fiom the penumbra of
early a.d. to the outer darkness of b.c., we enter
a benighted world in which there were no saints
at all. The prospect appals! We might almost
as well contemplate a world in which there were
no barristers. The question presents itself, and

presses upon us with irresistible force What did
our unhappy ancestors do in a world in which
there were no saints ? It is clear that patrons or
protectors of some kind they must have had, for
in pre-Christian, no more than in mediaeval times,
was there any conviction or knowledge of the

operation of natural laws. How do we know this?
We have it on unexceptionable authority. A con-
temporary writer, who is generally believed to
have been inspired, asserts

He hath not dealt so
with any nation, neither have the heathen any

knowledge of his laws. Consequently, there was
the same lack of any rule or governance in the

happening of events. Everything went by chance.
Saints Unnecessary 93
according as the devil or the saints were paying

attention, or got the upper hand at the moment.
But there were no saints. Hence it would appear
that the devil must have had it all his own way,
and that the affairs of men must have been uni-
formly and invariably unfortunate. But they were

not, for man survived. He not only survived, but
he prospered and flourished. He increased and
multiplied exceedingly. Men organised themselves
into great nations, built great cities, and were
subject to mighty kings. Egypt, Nineveh, Babylon,
Assyria, Persia, the Empire of India and the
greater Empire of China, all attest that, long before
there were saints to interest themselves in him,
man succeeded, somehow or other, in antagonising
the devil and getting the better of him. It is of
the utmost interest and importance to discover
how he did this, and what were the means that he

employed ;
and this brings me to the middle of my
song, and the second part of my paper. I am now
done with Saints. It is clear that they were not

as indispensable as they made themselves out;
and I say it with reluctance, but I have grave
doubts whether they did not lay claim, if not to
powers they did not possess, at any rate to the
94 Saints and Signs
exclusive possession of powers by no means peculiar
to them. We know, indeed, that on one historical

occasion, St Dunstan did seize the devil by the
nose with a pair of tongs ;
and we are told, on less
unimpeachable authority, but we are told, that
St Nicholas kicked him on a place which is described

as being near the spot where the tail joins on to
the small of the back ;

but with these exceptions,
though he was constantly outwitted, and indeed
he appears to be a kind of Simple Simon, easily
gulled by the most transparent device, and no

more astute than the victims of the confidence
trick with these exceptions, I say, there are few,
if any, records of personal encounters with the
devil till we come down to Martin Luther; and

Martin Luther was not a saint. He was never,
I understand, canonised, and I am informed on
good authority, in reply to inquiry made in the
highest quarters, that any application to Rome for
his canonisation would have little or no chance of
success.
Still, whatever unaccountable prejudices may

exist at Rome against the canonisation of this
great and good man, I cannot see that we are any
nearer a solution of the most important, and

The Great Discovery 95
indeed vital question, What did men do for
patrons before they had saints to fly to? This,
gentlemen, is the great and epoch-making discovery
that I have to announce to you on this memorable

evening. This is the brilliant result of years of
laborious research. This is the golden fruit of
a lifetime of very insufficiently rewarded toil. Why

should I repine that the paltry metal counters that
I exhibited at the beginning of this address are so

scarce and rare, when I have garnered so abundantly
rewards so much more precious? What did men
do for patronage and protection before they had
saints to place themselves under? Why, this was
what they did. Not to keep you in suspense any
longer, I will at once reveal that they sought the
protection of the Signs of the Zodiac and of the
Planets ;
and as far as it is possible to judge, the
protection they obtained therefrom was as ample,
as efficient, and as abundant, as that of all the

saints in the calendar.
Many centuries before a single saint had been

canonised, the system of patronage by the heavenly
bodies was completely organised was, if I may so
put it, in full swing ;

and all the Christian hagiology
did was to adopt this system, ousting the heavenly
96 Saints and Signs
bodies, and filling their places with saints. Long
before St Louis, or St Andrew, or that successful
commissary St George, was born or thought of,
every nation and city of antiquity had its patron

Sign. Every calling had its own patron Sign or
Planet ;
every part of the body its patron Sign or
Planet : and every illness had a double process of
cure, being remediable not only by certain drugs,
but according to the position and movement of
the Planets among the Signs when the drugs were
collected and when they were administered. The
series of saints and the series of Signs present
a complete parallel, and it is evident that in this
as in other things Christianity took advantage of
a pre-existing organisation and adapted it to its
own uses. It took the institution of patronage by

celestial personages, as it took the institution of
periodical festivals ;
emptied them of their previous
contents, and filled them with Christian matter,
leaving the pagan form unaltered. Thus it took
the great annual winter festival, and altered it
arbitrarily to Christmas day, pretending that it is
the anniversary of the birth of Christ, for which

there is not one tittle of evidence; but it could
not, or did not, alter the minor weekly festival

Priests and Astrologers 97
which still has its name from the greatest of the
Planets. In these cases the supersession was either
complete or none at all, but in other matters, and

especially in the matter of patronage and protection,
the struggle was very prolonged, and for ages the
two systems of patronage existed side by side ;
and
alongside the priests, who were experts in advising
as to the appropriate saint to invoke, were the

astrologers, experts in advising the proper con-
junction or disposition of the heavenly bodies to

wait for before beginning any undertaking or
altering any course of action, and also for the
purpose of determining whether a course of action

was or was not judicious, and calculated to be
successful. Between the two sets of practitioners
there was a natural jealousy. The Church forbad

recourse being had to the aid of Astrology, and
threatened excommunication to anyone who con-
sulted the rival expert, just as at present the
orthodox physician boycotts the homoeopath. On

the other hand the astrologer, who was often an
infidel, often a Jew or an Arab, despised and
ridiculed the pretensions of the saints. Whatever
faith, or want of faith, either sect had in its own
ministrations, neither was without an uneasy feeling
M. 7
98 Saints and Signs
that the other might, after all, have something in
it. The astrologers were not above invoking the
aid of the saints in their own personal difficulties,
and the very Popes who issued bulls fulminating
against Astrology and its practitioners, yet kept
their own private astrologers, whom they consulted

on the sly. In spite of their mutual antagonism,
however, the two systems existed side by side for
many centuries, and neither can boast of a complete
triumph over the other. Astrology is dead, it is
true, but in Protestant countries the invocation of

saints perished long before its rival, and the in-
fluence of the heavenly bodies was consulted by very
many who would have scorned to invoke a saint.

Very many days in the year had their patron
saints, and those who are familiar with old
chronicles know that the date of an event was
never signalised by the day of the month, but

always by the saints day that it fell upon, or, in
the few cases in which the day had not been

appropriated by some saint or other, the date was
signalised as being on the eve of the day following,
which was sure to have its patron saint, or the
morrow of the previous day. Correspondingly,
every day of the week had its patron Planet. The

Planets and Gods 99
number seven was chosen for the days of the week,
no doubt because in seven days the moon completes

a quarter, and in 28 days completes its revolution.
By a curious coincidence, the number of Planets
known to the ancient world was also seven, and

hence it was natural that to every Planet should
be assigned one day in the week. By an easy
transition, made at a time that I have not been
able to identify, but that; was certainly very early,
the powers of the Planets and those of the gods

became transferable, and with the powers the
names, so that only three of the seven days of the
week, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, are known
by the names of Planets, the remaining four being
called after the corresponding gods.
As with days, so with other things. We have

seen that to some saint or other every part of the
body was apportioned ;
and similarly the body was
carved up and portioned out among the Signs of
the Zodiac, as we find in the chapter of Arnaldus
de Villanova, De quolibet signo quod memhrum in
corpore respicit, and as is set forth in the first
lecture in this book, so that it is clear that the

heathen had as good a choice of celestial special-
ists as ever the Christians had.

100 faints and Signs
Time fails me to carry out the parallel in
further detail, but just as the patron Sign of
England is St George, and the effigy of St George
appears upon our coins, so the patron Sign of
Syria was Aries, and the effigy of the Ram appears
on Syrian coins. Similarly, Palmyra was under
the patronage of Libra, and on the coins of Palmyra
appears the Balance. Similarly, individuals had
their patron Signs before ever they had their
patron saints. The patron Sign of Augustus was
Capricorn, of Pythodeia Queen of Pontus, the
Balance. The custom continued well into medieeval
times and into Christian countries, and King

Stephen of England adopted and placed on his
coins the patron Sign of Sagittarius.
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Astrology in Medicine by THE FITZPATRICK LECTURES PDF

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MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited

DALLAS SAN FRANCISCO

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd.

THE FITZPATRICK LECTURES

CHARLES ARTHUR MERCIER, M.D.

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED

PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.

SIR THOMAS BARLOW, Bart., K.C.V.O.

Saints and Signs . 80

The position of Astrology among the Sciences

is quite unique. Its origin is so remote as to

advanced beyond barbarism : it has been studied

and things in opposition ;

we still find some things exorbitant ;

familiar with the martial cloak of Sir J. Moore

retain the names of Saturday, Sunday and Mon-

prescribe Mercury-, and we still begin our pre-

Yet these are the only remaining remnants of

that have been declared, by authority after au-

thority, to be so necessary to the proper practice

sance; it languished in the seventeenth century;

the last man of high distinction who practised it in

this country was John Dryden^; but though Peter

been since any commentator of sufficient knowledge,

history of human endeavour. There are indeed

Astrology. The first of these is Alchemy, which

1 In a letter to his sons John and Charles, dated Sept. 3,

The utmost malice of the stars is past

is therefore very far from extinct. Alchemy is

usually, however, understood to mean solely, what

search for the philosophers stone, and the search

audience that this endeavour, which has been the

now almost within sight of success. Certain ele-

ments are now transmuted, or transmute them-

the ancient Alchemists is now made in the labora-

tory. Nor need I remind you that one eminent

life in orchidian extract ;

more recently made the surprising discovery that

the elixir of life is neither more nor less than sour

milk. He was more fortunate than a predecessor,

who first isolated alcohol, and having drunk freely

of the newly discovered elixir of life, died, by the

irony of fate, of acute alcoholic poisoning.

be found in that of Aristotelian Logic; but the

parallel is still not quite complete. It is true that

Logic 'Was once cultivated with the same uni-

versality and the same fervour as Astrology ;

it was aforetime, like Astrology, a necessary part

of the equipment of every man who pretended to

not yet quite extinct. It is dying, indeed : it is in

the very agony of death; but it still breathes.

The lamp of Astrology is utterly gone out, but the

in some of the dark places of the earth. We might

among the sciences, the arts, and the crafts of our

throughout all nations and peoples that had any

attention of innumerable votaries, among whom

adorned the human race. It had consequently

minous details, expressed as they are in highly

canine and so extraordinarily abbreviated as to be